FAMILIES should be offered special tickets on Welsh buses in an attempt to curb traffic congestion and parking shortages, a transport expert has claimed.

Families have to pay for each adult and child on the bus, but pay just the normal flat fee for parking the family car.

After decades of rising car ownership in Wales, many families now feel bus travel is too expensive compared with parking, fuel and other motoring costs.

Professor Stuart Cole, of the Wales Transport Research Centre, says bus companies should introduce discounted family tickets, similar to ones offered by tourist attractions.

He believes bus companies could gain rather than lose money, because so many families would be attracted to the bus for the first time.

Some bus companies in the South already offer all-day rover tickets for families. The South Wales Network Rider costs #10.80 for up to five people, including one or two adults, and is accepted by many bus companies.

Those tickets are good value for families planning a day's extensive bus travel, but for a typical shopping trip to the nearest town the cost may seem high to families used to paying a pound or two to park.

Prof Cole's proposal would see families charged little more than the usual adult return fare, on condition that they travel as a group in both directions.

He pointed to Swansea's park-and-ride systems, where #1.50 is charged for parking regardless of the number of car occupants. All the occupants travel free on the shuttle bus to and from the city centre.

"Here we've got a good example of the right kind of prices to persuade people to leave their cars on the edge of towns," said Prof Cole, who is based at the University of Glamorgan.

"They can get the bus into Swansea for a flat rate per car.

"That principle needs to be looked at by the bus companies to see if there's a viable proposition for them - a family ticket which wouldn't cost much more than an individual ticket."

He said under the current arrangements, the cost of bus travel to an average family group was a disincentive to leaving the car at home.

"If they perceive the cost as being higher than the cost of going by car - which they perceive as petrol plus parking in the centre - then they're not going to take the bus."

He said experiments with reduced fares by Stagecoach, outside Wales, had shown that so many extra passengers were attracted by the cheaper travel that the company's income went up after the fares cut. He said the same could apply if family tickets were offered.

If family tickets would not cover their costs, local authorities could be asked to consider making up the shortfall to reflect the benefits of more families catching the bus.

"You would look at the social benefits of a reduction of 1,000 cars into a city centre as a result of reduced fares," he said.

He said his company offered a family day-rover ticket for #7, and its buses accepted the #10.80 family Network Rider.

"We have a lot of families on our buses, particularly at weekends and school holidays, but we recognise that we need to look at other ticketing options to attract more families."

Cardiff Bus and most other bus operators in Wales have invested in new buses which have low-floor entrances, to make boarding with prams and buggies easier. One major benefit for bus companies of attracting more families is that they tend to travel at times when there are spare seats, and not in commuter rush hours.

Family fare

IF a family of two adults and two children in the Swansea suburb of Landore wanted to go to the city centre, catching the ordinary bus would be five times more expensive than parking the car at the local park-and-ride site and taking the free bus.

Driving to the centre and parking there could also be much cheaper than taking the ordinary bus.

Bus: Return tickets #2.20 per adult, #1.50 per child. Total - #7.40.

Park and ride: #1.50 to park, with free travel to city centre for all occupants. Total - #1.50.

Car: 40p general mileage costs (AA rates for typical family car) plus city-centre parking at 90p to #1.10 for an hour or #6.50 all day. Total - #1.30 to #6.90.